RUSSIA.

1405 and his case was remarkable because he contracted thedisease while he was studying the tuberculosis bacilli in the Loomis Laboratory. He was the first to make the discovery (FROM OUR that he had contracted the disease. He was in vigorous at the time he began his studies and weighed 165. health and Vaccination. Small-pox It was Dr. Byron’s custom to receive samples of the RELIABLE statistics relating to vaccination and small-pox pounds. of persons who were suspected of having incipient sputum in this often This renders the not are forthcoming country. and to examine them under a powerful microscope following figures even more valuable than they would other- phthisis in order to detect, if possible, the presence of the bacilli. Dr. wise be. The figures were collected by Dr. A. N. Sotin and said months ago, when he knew that he had contracted published by him in a dissertation to the St. Petersburg Byron the disease, that he must have become careless after some Academy last year. He was led to collect the statistics in of his examinations and allowed the samples of sputum ta the following manner. The volost, or subdistrict, of which become dry. In that way he had inhaled the bacilli of he was in charge lay in the western corner of the Mologa. tuberculosis without at the time being aware of the fact. of uyezd, or district, in the government Yaroslavl.’ Observing Early last year Dr. Byron began to have a hacking cough and. that an epidemic of small-pox was approaching from the east, his suspicions were aroused. He examined his own sputum examined child under fourteen Dr. Sotin personally every years and made the discovery that he was suffering from tuberculous of age in his district before the disease arrived. The total He made repeated examinations and each time number of children examined was 1564, distributed amongst phthisis. discovered the bacilli. He did not appear to be greatly alarmed 665 families, and in thirty villages. He found that 1055 had the discovery which he had made, but he told his friends been vaccinated and had visible scars ; 75 children formed a by of his condition and made no secret of the manner in which. second group of doubtful cases, which were said to have been he I had contracted the disease. He was advised to seek a vaccinated, but in which no scars were visible ; and 434 had ’, warmer climate, and he went to Southern Italy in the hope The small-pox arrived and a widenever been vaccinated. of regaining his health. He remained abroad all the summer spread, though not very fatal, epidemic resulted. It was but he returned to the city in the fall much worse than when then found that of the 1055 11 vaccinated " children only 16, he went away. He had wasted almost to a skeleton and heor 1 3 per cent., had contracted the disease ; of the 75 was so weak that he could with difficulty walk about the "doubtful," 35," or 46.6per cent., suffered ; while of the 434 His cough was incessant and his nights were restless.. "unvaccinated children as many as 244, or 58.6 per cent., city. Dr. Byron was attacked with dangerous hæmorrhage of the the disease. In other words, the unvaccinated suffered caught on May 8th, and he thought his death might occur to an extent forty-five times as great as the vaccinated. lungs He was removed in an ambulance to the New immediately. it Further, was observed that in 189 families all the children York where his condition seemed to improveHospital, were unvaccinated, and in these families if one child sickened Another and fatal haemorrhage occurred the with the small-pox the disease spread (with only seventeen slightly. next day. A citizen has contributed$500 towards a, exceptions) to every other child in the house. On the other memorial to this "martyr to science." in houses where some children were and vaccinated hand, others not, the disease always attacked the last, and the first Taw on Medical Men. escaped. Dr. Sotin believes that there is no danger from The North Carolina Legislature, composed in part of vaccination performed during a small-pox epidemic, but members whose constituency depends upon the gratuitous that general vaccination will with certainty cut short an services of has imposed an annual tax of physicians, epidemic, and that the immunity following vaccination does $10, to be paid into the state treasury for the privilege of not last more than eight years, at the end of which time practising medicine. "That, "remarks the North Carolina, revaccination is necessary. Medicad Journal, "is a damnable outrage, worthy of the gang who perpetrated it, and we feel sure that among the first The Diphtheria Antitoxin. At a recent meeting of the Kazan University Medical things done by the next Legislature will be the repeal of this Society Professor Kazem-Bek reported 30 cases in which he section. In the meantime, we suggest to those doctors who had employed the antitoxin. In 17 of these cases only was may have to serve one of the Solons (?) who voted for this Löffler’s bacillus demonstrable. In all the administration of tax, that they increase their charges to cover the amount of. the remedy was followed by marked improvement both in the the tax. If the legislator be a dead-head, as he is now a local and the general symptoms. There was only 1 death, dead letter, cast him off and let him go to ——— ! no, the A country doctor." that of a patient with severe renal complications. A Memorial to Dr. Loomis. rash in two Dr. scarlatiniform Rojanski appeared patients. had had good results with the new treatment in the children’s The late Dr. Loomis inherited tuberculous phthisis and in clinique of the Moscow University. In all, 68 children had early life had marked symptoms of that disease. He had, been treated with the serum since last September, and of long anticipated an attack of lung affection which would these 13 died, the mortality rate being therefore 19 4 per prove fatal, and it finally came in the form of a pneumonia cent. Before that date the diphtheria death. rate had always which quickly ended his life. Hence his attention was morebeen from 46 to 48 per cent. Eight of the fatal cases had directed to phthisis pulmonalis than to any other disease. oedema of the neck and chest; before the introduction of the He had studied the effects of climates more thoroughly than serum treatment 90 per cent. of such cases had always any other physician in this country. It was largely through. proved fatal. Dr. Rojanski had also given serum injections his efforts that the Adirondacks became a popular mountain as a precautionary measure in about 100 pupils of the synodal resort for phthisical patients. In recent times he became choir school in which cases of diphtheria had occurred. One interested in the highlands of Sullivan County as a health of these contracted diphtheria in a light form on the fifth resort for those suffering from lung affections, and it has. been learned since his death that he contemplated establishday after injection. The remainder escaped infection. St. Petersburg, May llth (23rd). ing a sanitarium for persons suffering from phthisis, who. had limited means, in that region. A lady patient who had been benefited by a residence in these mountains has ofEered:. a large sum for the purpose of purchasing a tract of land and NEW YORK. erecting suitable buildings for a sanitarium. Her purpose (FRO-,Nl OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) is to carry into effect Dr. Loomis’s ideas. The establishment is to be called "The Loomis Sanitarium" and will beA Martyr to S’cience. exclusively for the benefit of those suffering from phthisis DR. JAMES W. BYRON, who became well known as a who would not otherwise be able to leave the city. bacteriologist through valuable service which he performed A Typhoid Fever Epidemic due to Infected Milk. as a member of the quarantine staff, died in the New York The State of Connecticut is now suffering from a terrible Hospital on May 6th from tuberculous phthisis, aged thirtyof typhoid fever, Stamford and New Milford being four. He had been ill with the disease for more than a year visitation the places where the epidemic has ragecz most severely. The medical records of the State do not show an epidemic equal 1 It may be as well to explain briefly the administrative divisions of the Russian country. Each village constitutes a rural commune or in extent to that at Stamford. It began three weeks ago mir ; a number of rural communes are united together to form a with a score of cases in various parts of the city and spread volost : a number of these, again, constitute an uyezd or district; while At first physicians were unable to explain it, but it the largest administrative division of all, containing many uyezds, is rapidly. called a gubernia if under civil rule or an oblast if under military rule. was soon traced to the milk from a farm. The total numberof cases since the disease began is 327. the deaths numbering 5, European Russia is divided into sixty such large divisions.

RUSSIA. OWN CORRESPONDENT.)